Plodding onwards

Updates on the projects I last blogged about.

Unfortunately my cowl neck sweater has not been progressing at the rate I'd hoped. I did do my daily 2" for about the first three days, but then I lost steam. Now I'm at about 9":

It is DEFINITELY looking like it will fit about a thousand times better though, and that was really the point, so I'm very happy about that. All I really need is a few solid hours of a Law & Order marathon to chug my way through the body of this sweater, but I am working every day this week so knitting time is limited to the very few moments at which I'm not complaining about work/eating/refreshing my Facebook page/watching TV slack-jawed.



Here's how the "skirt" is going:

I haven't quite finished the waistband. And I haven't even ordered the rest of the yarn. Because I had a sudden realization that I have already knit a lavender skirt. This guy, from a few years back:

I really like this skirt, though I rarely wear it. It's very heavy because of the double increases at each eyelet point, leaving me with 400 stitch+ rounds in the last tier. But that's not the point. The point is that when I remembered I'd made this skirt I became much less motivated to make yet another lavender skirt. So I faced two options. Get more yarn in a different color, rip out the waistband, reknit in new color, or, the second option which I like better, finish the waistband in Sugar Plum and order a different complimentary color for the rest of the skirt. I have 5 balls of "Sky Blue" in my KnitPicks shopping cart. So whenever I get around to ordering that maybe I'll actually knit that skirt.

Other stuff I have to knit-- hat for my mom's Hanukkah present. Um, possibly other Hanukkah presents? I guess now that I think about it I don't have a lot of stuff in my Must-Knit queue. I do have a lot of sock blank socks to knit for Shannon but I'll save those for when I'm back into knitting. Even though I have these two projects in-process, I'm not so totally motivated yet.

Cowl Neck, Take 2 + New Skirt

Last night after I posted, I took the plunge and ripped out

my

entire

turquoise

sweater.

You may remember that I had about, oh, I don't know, 18" of the body done. But I have to be honest with myself. I hated it, because it was so big. So I sat there and ripped, and ripped, and ripped, until it was all gone, and then I cast on again with 192 stitches instead of 246-- yes, quite a big jump. I had to cut out about five inches of width. I finished the 2" 3x3 ribbed hem last night.

I think my goal will be to knit 2" of length every day. I did my 2" of stockinette today. It looks like it'll probably be snug, which is what I'm going for, so, hooray. If I continue with the daily 2", I should be at the yoke in about a week. I'm not in a rush with this project. The fingering weight, plus the tiny needles, requires a loooot of little stitches, so patience is needed. Plus, my original enthusiasm for the project is slightly dampened by the fact that this is the THIRD time I am restarting it.

And I also started a new project today-- the skirt I wrote about yesterday. I wasn't committed to it, but a chat with a knitter friend who has completed like six projects in a week inspired me to get back on the horse. (Also a little bit of jealousy/competition.) So I cast on for the twisted stitch waistband with my Knit Picks Swish DK in Sugar Plum:

I LOVE this color, but I only have one ball, so I need to make another Knit Picks order... mmm I love ordering yarn! I'm not sure what I will get this time, except I know that instead of a bunch of random balls I'm going to get a bunch of each and try to have a project in mind, because buying just one ball of a yarn is kind of useless. Even though I don't necessarily know what I want to make. My friend is planning on making an afghan for herself... and even though the last afghan I made took YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS, I kind of want to make one too! But I'm not going to. I've decided that the next time I make an afghan will not be until I get married. THEN I will make a beautiful afghan for my new house. Probably with cables. But that is probably a while off. So no afghans for now. But maybe I will make a few baby blankets, because I know two people who just had babies. However, they are in Israel. That's the only problem. I don't know any people HERE who are having babies... not a single one. And it's a shame, because knitting for babies is so fun and easy and quick.

What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, the new skirt. I have about 7.5" of the waistband done now. You knit the whole waistband, and then pick up stitches for the body of the skirt. I'll need to order probably five or six more balls. I am loving the Swish DK-- it's a very soft merino yarn with great stitch definition. It's just very comfortable-- and it's superwash, which is GREAT. This yarn would be good for baby stuff (especially because it is washable). Maybe I'll get some of that for the baby blankets? Or the Shine Worsted-- that is also SO soft and smooth, and it's shiny and has a lovely drape. My friend is making a Bell Curve with the Shine Worsted and from the pictures it looks gorgeous-- perfect for a skirt. I really like making skirts, because it's easy to get them to fit. Getting sweaters and tops to fit is another story entirely. I think for the cowl neck sweater I'll have to do an increase for the bust. I'll figure that out when I get to the waist.

Anyway-- so hopefully I'm going to start knitting more.

The Knitting Blues

It's very bad timing, but I've hit a knitting slump. The last thing I made was the headband, a nice short quick project that I could finish in one evening. But I have been totally unmotivated to finish ANY of my existing projects.

A. Cowl-neck sweater in Knit Picks Palette. Oh man-- this thing is huge. I will absolutely have to unwind it and re-knit it if I want to ever care about wearing it. Which is a shame, because I've finished the entire body and one half of the yoke! But I have not one inkling of a desire to knit one more stitch on the thing. It's enormous. Simply enormous. At least if I frog and re-knit, I'll be able to cut out like a hundred stitches, so maybe the body will go faster.

Here is the sweater compared to a tank top that actually fits me.


B. Aunt Hayley's skirt. What I've learned about myself recently is that making the same thing over and over really bores me. I made myself a skirt; I made my mom the skirt. I started my aunt's skirt. Got about half-way done. And then ppttthhhpb (sound of balloon deflating). Just lost it. Lost all the mojo.

All that's left is the flare.... sigh.

C. Silk gloves. Moses. I started these over the SUMMER! What happened was this. I finished one glove very quickly and started the second glove, but got distracted with lots of other projects and figured I could finish them when it became colder. Then in September I happily knit up to the first finger. And then I unhappily realized that I had made a second right-hand glove. So I had to rip back all the way to the ribbing, and since then, it's been slow going. I finished the thumb gusset, and stopped there.

I have to make Hanukkah presents now. I finished my dad's hat, and now my mom wants one, the same one, also in Malabrigo. I can either use the red/pink variegated that I bought over the summer, or go and buy another skein of the Malabrigo Worsted... cause I kinda want the red for myself! I need a winter hat after all. I had to throw out my old red and blue entrelac hat when I found a hole chewed in it... by some bugs. Which were still living in the hat. It's too bad. That hat got me through a lot of chilly hikes and even kept my little Zevi's head warm in a pinch.

 

RIP hat.

I also have to make a present for my sister, and maybe a few others for family members. And I'm sooo uninspired. I found a really cute skirt in Interweave Knits, but I don't have the yarn for it in my stash... and I'm not sure I'm up to another skirt project. Though I love knitting skirts. Maybe I should start that, order the yarn, and hope that being excited about one project will kick-start my enthusiasm for all the others!

Here's a picture of the skirt (I had to take a picture of the magazine because it's not even on Ravelry yet):

Clementine

I made a headband!

Clementine

By Abra Forman

This is a very easy, very quick, and very cute headband which grows and shrinks in width from 8 to 14 stitches as you move from the bottom to the top and then back again. The garter borders prevent curling, and the end result is totally wearable and completely comfortable. This is a great project for a new knitter eager to try out increasing and decreasing skills. It fits the average woman’s 21” head circumference, but the length can easily be modified for kids or men.

Skills needed
Knit, purl, slip purlwise, make 1, knit 2 together.

Finished measurements
20.5” in length, 3” in width at widest point.

Materials
Knit Picks Shine Worsted (60% Pima Cotton, 40% Modal beech wood fiber; 75yds/50 gram ball), 1 skein in Clementine. If substituting yarn, make sure to pick out a worsted weight yarn that is stretchy but won’t sag.
1 set size 6 US straight needles.
Tapestry needle.

Gauge
5 sts/6 rows = 1”.

Pattern

CO 8 sts.

Work garter stitch, slipping the first stitch of every row purlwise, until work measures 1.5”.

Begin increases.

>>Inc row 1 (RS): Sl1 purlwise, K1, k into stitch below (m1), k4, m1, k2 (10 sts).
Row 1 (WS): Sl1 purlwise, k2, p4, k3.
Rows 2 and 4 (RS): Sl1 purlwise, k to end.
Row 3 (WS): Repeat row 1.
Work rows 1-4 three times.
>>Inc row 2 (RS): Sl1 purlwise, k2, k into stitch below (m1), k4, m1, k3 (12 sts).
Row 1 (WS): Sl1 purlwise, k3, p4, k4.
Rows 2 and 4 (RS): Sl1 purlwise, k to end.
Row 3 (WS): Repeat row 1.
Work rows 1-4 three times.
>>Inc row 3 (RS): Sl1 purlwise, k2, k into st below (m1), k6, m1, k3 (14 sts).
Row 1 (WS): Sl1 purlwise, k3, p6, k4.
Row 2 (WS): Sl1 purlwise, k to end.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 until work measures 15”, or desired length.

Begin decreases.

>>Dec row 1 (RS): Sl1 purlwise, k2, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k3 (12 sts).
Row 1 (WS): Sl1 purlwise, k3, p4, k4.
Rows 2 and 4 (RS): Sl1 purlwise, k to end.
Row 3 (WS): Repeat row 1.
Work rows 1-4 three times.
>>Dec row 2 (RS): Sl 1 purlwise, k1, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k2 (10 sts).
Row 1 (WS): Sl1 purlwise, k2, p4, k3.
Rows 2 and 4 (RS): Sl1 purlwise, k to end.
Row 3 (WS): Repeat row 1.
Work rows 1-4 three times.
>>Dec row 3 (RS): Sl 1 purlwise, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k1 (8 sts).
Work garter stitch for 1.5”. Bind off.
Sew seam and weave in ends.

All finished! Wear with pride.

Copyright Abra Forman

AFGHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I FINISHED IT!!! I FINISHED THE AFGHAN that Nana and I started like a thousand years ago!!!!!!!!!!


Okay, five years ago, but still....

Me, SVU marathon + afghan strips + needle and thread = AFGHAN!!!!!

Here are many pictures.

Family heirloom here. In fifty years, this thing better be stained, torn, raggedy, pilled, and missing tons of fringe. But most of all it better be LOVED!!